Hagley Digital Archives

The Hagley Digital Archives provides online access to selected items from the Hagley Library's collection of images, documents, and publications related to the history of business, technology, and society.

Surface scratches are buffed off spinnerets on this device, which uses a special mild abrasive. The procedure for cleaning and checking spinnerets is standard at all viscose process rayon yarn plants of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company.

Aerial view of the first nylon yarn plant of the DuPont Company just outside Seaford, Delaware looking south toward the Nanticoke River. The building is one-fifth of a mile long. Surrounding country is predominately agricultural.

One of the Textile Fibers Departments four research laboratories in this area, it is here where work is done on nylon and Dacron polyester fiber. The first unit of the present laboratory was opened in 1938. It has been increased in size on several occasions. The laboratory was dedicated on September 17, 1946 in honor of the late Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers, who researchers led to nylon and Dacron.

Shrinking by chemical action or heat is final step in production of non-woven felt of synthetic fibers in process developed through DuPont research. Wide batt enters machine at right, emerges as narrower strip of felt at left. Density, hardness and other properties of felt can be varied by controlled changes in processing. Equipment is part of facilities for study of processing methods and development of new industrial end products of man-made fibers at DuPont's $2,000,000 Textile Research Laboratory at Chestnut Run, near Wilmington, Delaware.

An important outgrowth of an industrial development is new employment. Nylon has created, in the DuPont Company alone, more than 7,000 new jobs, many of which are in the sizing operation-a major step in the production of nylon yarn. This photo, at the Seaford, Delaware plant, shows protective coating of size being applied as yarn passes over rollers saturated with the mixture. Rollers revolve in the trough through which size is pumped. Sizing yarn is an old textile process, but a special solution has to be developed for nylon. It gives protection to tiny filaments during knitting or weaving. After sizing, yarn is stored in a controlled atmosphere for 36 hours to permit the solution to set. Knitters and weavers boil off the solution in the final manufacturing step.

Cotton plays a major role in the manufacture of viscose process rayon at plants of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company. Cotton linters provide a big source of cellulose and thousands of yards of cotton sheeting, batting and canton flannel go into filtering material every day. The filter setting machine above is loaded with alternate layers of batting, canton flannel and sheeting that are rolled out on long tables and then cut to proper size for use on filter presses.

Bundles of raw bristle, used in the manufacture of toothbrushes, are first washed, bleached and sterilized and then dried thoroughly at the Leominster, Massachusetts plant of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company. Trays of bundles of bristles are seen going into the drying ovens.

View of the powerhouse at the nylon yarn plant of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company at Martinsville, Virginia. In the foreground is the coal conveying and coal handling equipment, with the filter plant at the extreme left.

The yarn is wound from one package to another; passing over a substance which gives it added protection during textile manufacturing operations. The size is subsequently removed from the finished products.

Like the paths of tracer bullets, Super-Cordura high tenacity rayon yarn for tire cord races in a picturesque pattern from a battery of creels into a beaming machine. High tenacity rayon which was first developed by E.I du Pont Nemours & Company is manufactured at Richmond, Virginia.

Shower curtains and even bath towels are among the engineered fabrics containing nylon in The Nylon Suite, a new deluxe feature of the Hotel DuPont. The shower curtains are made of an all nylon taffeta woven by the Duplan Corporation. In exhaustive tests, the hotel found that nylon shower curtains paid for themselves four and one half times in six months through reduced maintenance costs. The curtains dry quickly, need no ironing and after laundering can be hung damp on the bathroom, straight from the washing machine. The towels, made by Cannon Mills, have spun nylon warp and filling, giving them high strength with promise of greatly increased service life. The conventional cotton terry insures that the drying functions of the towels will not be affected.

Nylon filaments to be used as sutures or fishing leader is shown in this photograph being wound upon spools preparatory to shipment. Photograph take at the Arlington, New Jersey plant of the Plastics Department of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company.

Liquid viscose transformed in a chemical bath into cellulose filaments to make rayon at plants of E.I du Pont Nemours & Company. Note the liquid being covered through the many fines holes in the spinneret and in a short space becoming separate rayon filaments, which, further on, form a rayon fiber.

The white blankets on the twin beds of The Nylon Suite, a new deluxe feature of the Hotel DuPont represent one of the newest fields entered by nylon. Made by the Chatham Manufacturing Company, the blankets are scarcely distinguishable in appearance, feel or warmth from the best blankets of the traditional type. Nylon has no attraction for moths so that the blankets can be left in summer storage without periodical inspections. Possessing the same dimensional stability that that characterized properly set nylon socks and sweaters, the blankets can be washed without fear of excessive shrinkage. Coated nylon fabrics covers the pillows.

Far from its position in the textile apparel industry Orlon acrylic fiber does a tough job here where it serves as a filter on a giant filter press. Having qualities which can be adapted to rugged industrial assignment as well as high style, Orlon acrylic fiber withstands ravages of sunlight, weathering, many types of acids and is excellent for auto tops and even specialized work clothes.

Careful check of yarn formation on shipping bobbins holding Lycra spandex fiber is made by supervisor at DuPont's Waynesboro plant. This careful scrutiny of the yarn takes place even before it is okayed to be sent to inspectors who prepare it for shipment to DuPont customers. Before a new plant was built at Waynesboro, Virginia the company has spent more than $10 million in research, development and market tests.